June 17, 2023
Hello community, I've returned to the forum after a lengthy absence. I want to enter 3 or 4 screenplay contests but was stymied by the terms and conditions. 2 terms were common in most:1) Omit the copyright logo.
2) Waiving liability of judges, and the platform, if they, or anyone else, acquires a similar script, or contents, as your own.
Can someone explain this away to calm my "years and years" of skepticism of fair play.
Please...
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Omit copyright logo I haven’t seen. But many contests want a more level playing field. There is a natural bias towards people like me, older white guys. So “copyright Craig D Griffiths” may bias someone, it may advantage me over a “copyright Sue Li” for instance.
Plus all stories have a near exact copy somewhere. It is not theft, it is just a mathematical possibility. So they are asking entrants to acknowledge that. Everyone of my screenplays I guarantee exist in someone else’s brain or on paper somewhere.
The contest is just trying to stop people claiming “my story was stolen”, when it wasn’t.
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Thanks. Although there are one-of-a-kind, never dreamed of stories out there. There are stories and novel subject matters that haven't come out in any fashion. I mean a very first of its kind, something that future writers will eventually create "knock-offs of... like the batman franchise created from the comics.
So that's what I'm saying: there are true novel subject matter screenplays, truly novel. No similarities at all.
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Batman, could be a retelling of Zoro. A wealthy individuals putting on a mask and fighting crime and corruption.
There are nuance in all stories that make them individual. Castaway is a great film, but a man stuck in an island isn’t new.
Nuance and detail can make something feel fresh, but at the core, all stories have been told.
The great thing is copyright protects nuance and unique artistic expression. The reason you put a copyright notification is to make it easy for people to find you. That notification doesn’t not (in itself) protect or remove your protection.
You dig!!!